A little consideration, understanding please

Dear Editor,

If you are attending a basketball game, please take into consideration the people volunteering their time to make the game possible.

As the bookkeeper for many high school basketball games, I am surrounded by fans, from both sides of the game. Many times these individuals will yell during the game; sometimes positive and sometimes negative. This is perfectly acceptable. A lot of passion and enthusiasm surround the game of basketball. Especially when the people we care about are on the court.

But that is also where problems arise.

Those of us at the score table also care about the people on the court, and on the bench. I am not only the bookkeeper, but also a player’s mom and a coach’s wife. And after spending so much time with the other players, I care about them as well.

So when fans seated behind the score table believe it’s acceptable to yell at coaches during the game, I get upset.

Coaches are expected to behave professionally. They are focused on the game and their team. They defend their players, communicating with referees regarding the game. The banter between referees and coaches is an expected part of the game. But the banter between fans and coaches is not.

If coaches are expected to behave professionally, why not fans? Why should they be allowed to yell at a coach, who is only doing his or her job? I have never walked into a business and begun heckling an employee. But once that business’s employee sits down in the bleachers, they are allowed to do just that; by yelling at coaches, referees, players and volunteers. Seems like a double standard.

So what’s the solution?

I can promise there is plenty of seating available in a gym so that opposing fans need not sit behind the scorer’s table or the opposing bench. Obviously, coaches and scorekeepers can not move to other parts of the gym. Their seats are very much assigned. And so we are forced to listen to the conversations of the people seated around us. There comes a point in the season of basketball when those conversations become too much and too hard to ignore. And so, since I can not move, I might ask that others move to a different part of the gym. There is no hatred or swearing.

Just an expectation of a little consideration and understanding. I don’t expect that those same people will not yell and cheer in other seats. I don’t expect those people to leave the building and miss the game. I only expect that it’s possible to act like adults while watching children play a game and take responsibility for our own actions. Everyone in the building should be held to the same standard, whether coaches and players, or fans.

Lesa Tines,

Culbertson, Neb.